16. Perhaps the most highly-civilized and enlightened of all the aboriginal Americans were the Aztecs, in Mexico, the inhabitants of Central America, and the people inhabiting the regions of Peru and Chili in South America. In all these regions the Spaniards, who visited them after Columbus' discovery was known, found large cities, well and strongly fortified, with many thousand inhabitants, with large and spacious palaces, and with markets regularly supplied with all the necessaries of life, and with fine and elegant goods in great variety. Cortez, the celebrated warrior who penetrated and conquered Mexico, sometime afterwards, in a letter to the Emperor Charles V., says, writing of the city of Cholula: "The inhabitants are better clothed than any we have hitherto seen. People in easy circumstances wear cloaks above their dress; these cloaks differ from those of Africa, for they have pockets, though the cut, cloth, and fringes are the same. The environs of the city are very fertile and well cultivated. Almost all the fields may be watered; and the city is much more beautiful than all those in Spain; for it is well fortified and built on level ground. I can assure your highness, that from the top of a mosque I reckoned more than four hundred towers, all of mosques. The number of inhabitants is so great that there is not an inch of ground uncultivated."

17. The city of Mexico, which was the capital, exceeded Cholula in size, in population, and in the beauty and magnificence of its buildings. "The palace of Montezuma (the king) was so large a pile that it opened with thirty gates into as many different streets." The Aztecs, by which name the inhabitants of Mexico have been known in history, had made considerable progress in the arts of civilization. Their buildings, their paintings, and sculpture, were very remarkable in many respects.

16. Which nations were most highly civilized? What does Cortez say of them?

kets ?

What is said of their mar

17. What is said of the city of Mexico? Describe the Falace of Montezuma What is said of the paintings and sculptures ?

18. But the civilization of the inhabitants of Peru in South America was of a higher and more refined character than that of Mexico. The people were milder and gentler in their manners, and their religion did not possess the savage feature of offering human sacrifices to idols, as that of the Aztecs did. They had a tradition that about four hundred years before the arrival of the Spaniards in the country, Manco Capac, their first Inca, by which name their kings were called, a white man of wonderful knowledge, clothed in flowing garments, came amongst them from some unknown region, and taught them agriculture and many useful arts; "to construct reservoirs and aqueducts; to make ploughs, harrows, and shoes for their own feet. His wife taught the women to spin, to weave, and to make their own garments."

19. His descendants and successors pursued the same gentle policy, and over whatever territories their sway became extended, whether by conquest or otherwise, they taught the inhabitants "to plough, and manure, and cultivate the soil." They constructed numerous aqueducts many miles in length, by which almost the whole country of Peru was watered, some relics and monuments of which remain unto this day.

20. The tribes of Indians in that portion of North America now known as the United States were possessed of but little knowledge; their arts were very few; their buildings were rude huts called wigwams, and agriculture was practised to a very limited extent. War and the chase were the favorite occupations of the men. Whatever labor was

done was done by the women. They were ignorant of letters; literature they had none, and their traditions were few and uncertain. But even these people dwelt not in unrelieved darkness. They were simple in their manners,

18. Describe the Peruvians. What tradition did they have? What did Manco Capac and his wife teach the people?

19. What policy was pursued by the descendants of Capac? What did they

construct?

20. What is sal 1 of the Indians in the country now known as the United States !

faithful to their word, grateful for kindness, and believed that, when they were taken away by death, they would go to happy hunting-grounds prepared by the Great Spirit.

21. Columbus, on his return to Spain, was received with distinguished honor by Ferdinand and Isabella. He afterwards made several voyages to the New World, planted colonies, and built cities and forts. On his third voyage he visited the continent of South America, and landed at several places on the coast of Cumana. The mainland of North America he never saw. But after all his great services to Spain; after having added a New World to the dominions of that country, it was his misfortune to meet with ill-treatment and injustice. He was superseded in his command, and, under a charge of high treason, was sent home in chains. The charges against him were not sustained, and he was set at liberty, but the remainder of his life seems to have been inactive and uneventful. He died in obscurity and poverty at Val-la-do-lid', in Spain, on the 20th of May, 1506, in the 71st year of his age.

22. America was so called from Americus Vespucius, another navigator, who, after the report of Columbus' wonderful discovery had excited so much interest among the scientific men in Europe, set out on a new exploration, and made much more extensive discoveries than Columbus had. In 1499 he published a map of the coast and a description of the lands he had visited. His delineations of the coast were so accurate, and his descriptions of the countries were so vivid and so delightfully written, that, by the common consent of his contemporaries, the New World was called America.

21. How was Columbus received in Spain? Did he make other voyages! What treatment did he receive after this? What was he charged with? Where

did he die ? At what age?

22. From whom was America named? And why ?

SEMPER

CHAPTER II.

SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA.

1607-1609.

The first permanent British Settlement in America, at Jamestown. 1. It does not come within the scope and purpose of this work to set forth the progress of the Spaniards and Portuguese in their conquest and occupation of the Southern portion of the continent. The history of that progress has very little to do with the history of the British colonies, or of the United States. What connection there may be will be noticed at the proper time. It will suffice at present to state that the Spaniards extended their

conquests over Mexico, East and West Florida, Central America, nearly the whole of South America, except the Empire of Brazil, which was taken possession of by the Portuguese. It may interest the youthful reader to be told that Brazil is the only independent country or state on the Continent of America which is now governed by descendants of any of the royal families of Europe. 2. The French, at an early day after the discovery of America, made voyages to the New World, and planted many colonies and settlements. Nova Scotia, and all that region north of the River St. Lawrence now known as British America, were first occupied by them. They also planted the colony of Louisiana, and built the city of New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi. From the

CHAPTER II.-1. What nations took possession of South America? What is said of Brazil ?

2. In what region did the French plant colonies? What was the consequence of the conflicting claims of the French and English? Upon what were the claims of Great Britain founded?

conflicting claims of Great Britain and France to vast tracts of country, the colonists of both countries frequently suffered greatly, not only from wars between those two countries, but also from wars with the neighboring Indian tribes.

3. The claim of Great Britain to plant colonies in North America to the exclusion of others, was founded upon the right of priority of discovery, which, by the general consent of nations, is regarded as good and valid. In the year 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, in the service of Henry VII., King of England, discovered the mainland of North America, fourteen months before Columbus landed upon the mainland of South America. In the year 1498 the Cabots, father and son, John and Sebastian, explored the coast-line from Labrador as far south as the Chesapeake Bay. And in 1517 Sebastian Cabot sailed up Hudson's Straits and Bay until he reached the sixty-seventh degree of North latitude; it being an object of the British Government, even at that early day, to find a northwest passage to India.

4. The first attempts of the English to plant colonies in North America failed. About the year 1578 an expedition, to which Queen Elizabeth contributed, was fitted out for Labrador, the object of which was to work the mines of gold which were supposed to abound in that region. The colony consisted of about one hundred settlers, but they were afraid to be left in that dreary region, and so returned without even an effort to accomplish anything. But the hopes of colonizing the country at some point were not abandoned. In 1578 a charter was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, empowering him to take possession of extensive regions of country. Gilbert sailed for North America, but was compelled to return without accomplishing his purpose.

3. What discoveries were made by the Cabots ? What was the object of the British Government ?

4. What is said of the first attempts of the English to found colonies ?